


Blow It Up

by perplexed (orphan_account)



Series: Grand Theft Smosh AU (Polysmosh) [4]
Category: Smosh, Smosh Games
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gang World, Alternate Universe - Grand Theft Auto Setting, F/F, F/M, Gang Violence, Gangs, Guns, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Knives, M/M, Multi, Other, Polyamory, Polyfidelity, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 17:12:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4188096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/perplexed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When they were just starting out, Ian and Anthony were a couple. A poor one at that, whose families had long since disowned them when they came out. But that was in the past.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blow It Up

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this is a MONSTER. Have this quickly rewritten little GTS origin/backstory for how the gang got together, now including the new Smosh crew too!!
> 
> All warnings should be in the tags but please expect AU typical violence, drugs, sex, rock and roll, etc. etc.. It's a GTA/Gang AU, please exercise caution before reading!
> 
> ##  [Fanmix](http://8tracks.com/bedroomhymn/blow-it-up)

When they were just starting out, Ian and Anthony were a couple. A poor one at that, whose families had long since disowned them when they came out. But that was in the past.

“Hey, pass me the pistol,” Ian idly said one day, while they were making their way from their old home in New York to their new home just outside of Los Angeles. It was a very long drive, especially for two fresh faced and reckless eighteen year olds who’d been kicked out of home the week before, and lived on friend’s sofas for a week before deciding to hightail it across the country, armed with pickpocketed bank cards and a list of PINs as long as their arms.

They never had any interest in finishing high school anyway, and while they didn’t know where they were going to stay in LA, they were sure they’d find a hostel or something that wouldn’t ask where two unemployed teenagers were getting their rent money from.

Really, pickpocketing those bank cards was just the start of what they had planned for their trip to LA. With new names they’d bought from the internet and a backpack full of stolen goods and credit cards, the world was their oyster. They’d have to steal to live, and what better way to do that than to hold up a couple of stores on their way to Los Angeles.

With hindsight, it wasn’t the best plan perhaps, but it was the only way at the time that they could see to get across the country with enough money to live relatively comfortably

Anthony reached underneath the driver’s seat with one hand and pulled out the pistol Ian had managed to buy the day before, complete with some ammunition, from a man who asked no questions and refused to answer them as well. He handed it off to Ian nonchalantly - at that age, neither of them got the implications that carrying an unlicensed firearm came with.

They were nearing the store they were to hold up, so Ian tugged on the balaclava resting in his lap and grinned at Anthony, taking his hand with his free one.

“I love you,” Ian said, and Anthony smiled while returning the statement as they pulled up outside a backwater, middle of nowhere, rest stop.

Ian climbed out of the car confidently, brandishing the pistol and taking the safety off the way the man he’d bought it from had shown him. He walked up to the entrance of the store and, with a loud string of shouts and threatening gestures, after a few minutes, he reappeared with a plastic bag full of cash and a bigger grin on his face.

\---

Ian and Anthony met a hitchhiker called Joven somewhere outside of Ohio. He looked around the same age as them and was escaping, they discovered, for the same reason.

On the same night as they picked him up, Ian and Anthony had a long talk before deciding to instigate a threesome. After all, this journey was one of firsts, right? No better time to have a threesome than on a reckless binge of drugs, money and driving, Ian figured.

They were surprised when Joven shrugged and said a simple, “Okay, then,” to their proposal. They’d been planning on having to convince him, but judging from how clingy and needy joven was while Anthony fucked into him and Ian kissed him deeply, he needed and wanted the contact.

In reality, it was Joven’s first time with anyone, and he was also on a reckless binge, but for a different reason. He’d been planning on killing himself in Los Angeles, far from home, where no one would miss him, they found out years later.

\---

Joven became a fast friend, as well as an interesting third party in their relationship over the three weeks of driving and sleeping in the car on their way to LA. Joshua had been shocked and a little appalled when they’d confessed to stealing and robbing, but after some convincing he took a few of their credit cards for himself and splurged on some new clothing, since he didn’t have the luxury of packing before he was kicked out of his home.

Jovenshire became an integral part of Ian and Anthony’s landscape, and two weeks into the trip, while they were all getting ready to sleep in the uncomfortable seats of the sedan Ian had stolen from his mother, he confessed to wanting to be part of the next hold up they did, just for the thrill of it.

Ian had smirked, and Anthony had nodded, and they stayed up most of the night planning what they were going to do when they reached the rest-stop tomorrow.

\---

When they reached the rest-stop, the last thing they expected to find was someone already holding the place up. Ian had rolled his eyes and told the stranger to share the takings, but the stranger just turned his assault rifle on Ian and, with an uneasy stare and grin, cocked his head to the side.

“Don’t you know who I am?” the stranger had said, and Ian shook his head, gulping.

“I’m David Moss. The David Moss. The one who’s been killing people since he was a kid.”

The name suddenly clicked for Ian and, oh, he vaguely remembered something a few years ago about a fourteen year old stabbing a family friend after said family friend tried to punch him after a family argument. 

“I’ve been on the run longer than you’ve had that gun for. It’s cute, by the way. Little pistol make you feel safe, does it?”

Ian just gulped again and lowered his own gun in response. With his head hung low, he ducked out of the store and went back to the car. He was shaking, in shock and on the verge of tears - it was the first time he’d been on the other end of the gun. As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, he burst into shocked tears and it took Anthony and Joshua a few minutes to coax out of him what had happened.

Once they did, they all sat there like sitting ducks in dumbfounded silence. Anthony was clutching the steering wheel and Joven had to be stopped from going and confronting David himself.

“Hey, you forgot something!” came David’s voice from outside the car, and when Ian looked up, the man had his face almost pressed against the glass. Reluctantly, Ian wound the window down a small way.

“What? You won, leave us alone,” Anthony said, his expression stony.

“No, I feel bad, man. I mean, you’re just trying to get by like me. Here.”

David reached into his backpack and pulled out a few wads of notes, pushing them through the slit in the window.

“Where are you guys going? LA?”

Ian pursed his lips, too scared to speak even after the man’s sudden change in mood. Anthony just nodded.

“Me too. Maybe we should ride together, look out for each other. My car’s a heap of junk anyway, the bumper fell off yesterday and I could do with a ride, if you’ll have me.”

David’s change in mood unsettled Ian to no end, and before he could protest, Anthony had unlocked the doors and was inviting David into their car.

\---

Later that night, in a field in the middle of nowhere where they’d stopped their car for the night, Ian and Anthony had their first real fight. Ian swung at Anthony a few times, and came off worse, with a bloody and broken nose by the end of it all. Joven was the one to break them up, while David sat on the hood of the car, smoking a blunt and laughing at the situation unfolding in front of him.

They didn’t speak properly to each other for three days, and David found himself feeling almost guilty, (once he’d come down,) about causing a fight. It was only on the fourth night that Anthony ushered Jovenshire and David out of the car, telling them to take a walk, so he could fuck some sense back into Ian.

Ian, to this day, couldn’t remember a time when his skin felt more prickly or his head swam more than that hour in the back of his car, with Anthony towering above him and pressing into him fast and hard.

On the same night, Joven brought up the topic of the three of them being in a relationship, to which David gave a noncommittal shrug and asked if they had room for one more in that setup.

\---

By the time they reached LA in the fourth week of driving, the four of them had done a few more misdeeds, including a successful attempt to hold up a rural post office which netted them their biggest takings yet. They had enough money to rent a place to themselves, albeit together, which wasn’t a bad thing considering that, just the night before, they’d ‘inducted’ David into their relationship the only way they knew how to - with hot hands on cool bodies.

They had to fuck outside the car this time, in a small forest clearing just off the road, which added some danger to the situation. David was an aggressive top, more so than even Anthony, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. He bit and clawed at Joven’s back while he fucked him roughly, scuffing Joven’s knees on the dirty forest floor.

\---

The house they rented was small and had damp patches growing in random places, but mostly they only cared that the landlord didn’t ask where four unemployed boys were getting the money from to pay rent in cash. The landlord was a slovenly man who showed up in tracksuit pants the first time they met him, and moreover he seemed to be terrified of the four boys, which was something they guffawed about behind closed doors, feeling full of pride at being able to scare someone.

\---

A few months passed before they decided to pull their next stunt, and they only did that out of boredom. Their stash of stolen cards was running out as well, and Ian made a mental note to teach David and Joven how to pickpocket and steal PINs at ATMs sometime soon.

Having four of them made things a little crowded on occasion, so Anthony and David ventured out of the city alone one night to make some new cash. They made a beeline for the nearest broken down rest stop in the desert and came away with only minor bruising after the shockingly spry lady behind the counter had tried to hit them with a baseball bat, only getting in a couple of half-decent body swings. They felt little remorse and instead of moping over the woman’s loss, drove to a convenience store on the bad side of a small town on their way back to LA, picking up booze and weed from what had become their ‘regular’ spot.

For the best part of the next two years, things continued on in much the same fashion. They became feared by a lot of local rest stop owners and had to start looking further afield in order to not get confronted with weapons pointed at them after a bad situation where David was hit in the upper arm with a crowbar. Ian patched him up since it hit nothing of importance, even managing a few homemade stitches with some cotton and a darning needle they had lying around.

It was around that time that they started looking for a new place to live. They’d outgrown the dusty, sub-motel quality home they were living in, to say the least. They eventually moved out of the city and, unconventionally, moved into a small warehouse unit together. It was cold, dark and damp, but with a few heaters here and there, a TV, lighting, and some air mattresses, it suited them well enough. Even after paying outright for the tiny industrial unit out of the city by fifteen miles, the deeds in Anthony’s name, from a shady man who didn’t even ask why they were buying it, they had cash to spare. That wasn’t even mentioning the cards that Ian and Joven had managed to delicately lift from people’s pockets, along with a long list of corresponding PINs. It was shocking, Ian thought, how stupid people were when they ‘lost’ their cards - while some got cancelled, most of them were still active.

Upon Ian’s insistence, they bought another car, a faster one, better suited for quickly escaping before people had chance to memorise the number plates, (which they often changed anyway.) Upon Joven’s insistence, they managed to find a guy - thanks to their weed hookup - who sold firearms and other weapons. Joven had, of course, insisted upon having a knife instead of a gun, relishing in the look in Ian’s eyes when he played with the titanium butterfly knife idly. The rest of them bought varying firearms - Ian a sawn off shotgun, Anthony a semi-automatic pistol and David another assault rifle that was in better working condition than his.

Anthony made sure that they had enough food to live on, practically taking care of the other three as he knew they wouldn’t do it themselves. He also invested some of his share of their money in a security system for the warehouse, figuring that with their growing armoury and small fleet of cars needed protecting.

\---

They were still sleeping in the warehouse a month later, but that was soon to change, if they could pull off their biggest hit yet. Anthony had, somehow, managed to get a contract of sorts from one of the guys they’d buy weed from. It wasn’t a murder contract, more like a… ‘Put the fear of God into these guys for me’ contract. And that, they decided as a group, they could do.

Despite never having actually faced off against other gangs before, they’d got themselves something of a name on the local crime scene amongst those in the know. They were laughed at, more often than not, by anyone above a drug pusher, but none of them really cared as long as they weren’t being targeted by a big group or a more experienced one. This contract, though, had the chance to do one of two things: either they’d make a name for themselves, or they’d be carried out of the place in bodybags.

The gravitas of the situation only hit them when they were driving to the job. Anthony turned to Ian, who was driving, and put his hand on the other man’s thigh, offering a small smile across the center console. David looked to Joven and did the same thing, giving Joshua’s leg a little pat before pulling his hand back. They rode there in silence, put on their masks in silence, and left the car in silence.

As soon as they were through the doors of the small tumbledown apartment in the seediest, dirtiest part of the city, they sprang into action. There were only two men there, as promised, and they owed money. Money that the four of them would get a cut of, plus a little extra, if they could work it out of them. They’d been told to leave no permanent scars - physical ones, anyway.

They left most of the talking to David, who had a somewhat convincing way with words, playing up the almost psychotic stare that had freaked Ian out so much when they first met. Anthony and Joven did the literal heavy lifting, throwing the men to the floor and kneeling, with practiced precision, on the backs of their necks so moving was practically impossible. Ian stood in front of the door, David’s old assault rifle in his hands, making sure that neither of them would make a break for it.

They were just junkies, ones who’d got themselves into debt with the wrong people, but after a lot of pushing and pulling verbally, and David tipping out most of the drawers in the house onto the floor in front of the men, they found the money and, as quietly as they’d come in, left again.

The car ride back to their dealer was quiet, and it wasn’t until they had their cut and were speeding back to the warehouse that they allowed themselves to celebrate. They’d been paid $10,000 for one job, much more than they ever got from holding up convenience stores and rest stops, and they were all a little giddy about their success.

Anthony spent his share on a down payment for a nice apartment for them all. If they could get steady money like that coming in, and their dealer had promised them more jobs after that one went so well, they could afford rent, bills, and a myriad of gadgets for their new home. Anthony, of course, dabbled in making himself appear older before going to pay the down payment. He got a haircut, (a change from the straggly emo hair he’d been sporting since high school into something considerably smarter and more mature,) bought a suit, and managed to get his hands on a fake ID of some semi-successful bank worker in the city. All in all, nothing must have clicked as suspicious, because he came back after viewing the apartment with the keys in his hand and the first month’s rent paid in cash.

\---

From there on out, things only kept getting better. They were offered more jobs, not only by their dealer but by his friends as well, and soon they were getting phone calls from withheld numbers, asking them to do things by a certain date, and to meet them for payment. The boys asked no questions, and it didn’t take long for them to get their first, (second in David’s case,) blood on their hands.

It happened during a regular job, just another junkie who was in too deep and hiding their money from their dealer. They didn’t go into the job expecting to shed blood, or to have their blood shed. Joven bore the brunt of the conflict, receiving a nasty knife wound to his thigh. As soon as Ian had realised what was going on, he was surprisingly calm as he raised his shotgun to eye level, clicked the safety off and fired.

That wasn’t to say it was smooth sailing, though. Despite putting a brave face on, Ian had night terrors about it for months afterwards, and if they were honest, so did the other three as well.

Once word got around that they’d put someone out of their misery, they started getting even more unusual calls, ones asking for hits to be put out on people. They spent a long time talking it over - after all, Ian had only killed that addict out of self-defence - and decided that they’d try it. They had nothing to lose, and everything to gain. It had only been a matter of time until someone fought back, Joven theorised while holding Ian close one night after a particularly violent nightmare. It had been a matter of time, that’s all, and if Ian didn’t feel right killing someone, no one would hold him sitting out those jobs against him.

Anthony and David had agreed with that statement over breakfast the next morning, and Ian had felt a little more at ease. He didn’t know how easy he would sleep knowing that his partner(s) were murderers, but he figured he’d get over it. He’d also been dismayed when Anthony had bought an old pistol when they were teenagers, but he’d got over that soon enough. Such was life in the criminal underworld, right?

\---

“Hello?” Anthony groaned as he answered the phone they kept for ‘business’ only calls. It was six in the morning, and he’d had to reach over both David and Joven to get to the phone, which had put him in a bad enough mood already. He hadn’t been expecting to hear an airy, feminine voice on the other end of the phone line. All of the calls they’d gotten so far had been from men.

“Is this Anthony?” the stranger asked. Anthony rubbed his hand over his unshaven face.

“Yeah, who’s calling?”

“That’s not important. What is important is that I can shoot, I can steal, and I don’t care who gets in my way. My friend is an expert in mixed martial arts, and we’d like to talk to you about joining your ranks.”

“Is this a prank call?” Anthony murmured, sitting up in bed and gently shaking Ian’s arm off his torso.

“No. Consider it, won’t you? We’ve been working alone for some time and your friend Ryan gave us the tip off about you guys.”

“Oh, Ryan.” Anthony rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. The last thing he needed was a couple of wannabe gangsters joining their ranks and fucking up the simplest of things. If Ryan hadn’t been such a good dealer, and later on friend, Anthony would have considered putting a bullet between his eyes. “Uh. Meet me in an hour, outside of town, on highway 10, five miles East of Ontario. I’ll be driving a Subaru.”

With that, he put the phone down and shook Ian awake.

“Babe? We’ve got a potential confrontation on our hands, and I want you to come with me to meet this… Chick who says she’s interested in working for us.”

Ian groaned and rolled over, covering his head with his arms.

\---

Half an hour and two cups of coffee later, Ian was up and dressed, along with the other three men. David and Joshua had insisted upon coming as well, just in case it was an ambush. They piled into Ian’s Subaru and, with Ian driving, sped off towards highway 10, heading East.

They’d all worked themselves up so much that they were shocked to see a plain looking Honda parked off the side of the highway, with a woman in the driver’s seat and an unassuming looking man next to her. The road was silent save for them and the strangers so, tentatively, the four men climbed out of their car, pistols tucked into their waistbands save for Joven, who had his butterfly knife folded in his hand, as always.

“Get out of the car,” Anthony shouted, his hand on his pistol, ready to draw if he needed to. The car doors clicked open and a lithe female stepped out of the driver’s side, holding her hands up for a second.

“Don’t worry, we’re unarmed,” she said, spinning around in a dainty circle to show she wasn’t hiding anything behind her back while the man climbed out of the car as well. Ian kept an eye on the man, though he was small and seemed to be more scared of them than they were of either of the strangers.

\---

Half an hour of awkward, stilted conversation followed. The four of them learned the woman’s name was Mari, not Mary, and that she’d been committing petty crime since she was a child. She started off shoplifting, got jailed for it for a few months, and came out of prison with an undercut and new contacts. She’d moved on to committing jobs much like the boys were, but alone at first, until she’d met the man with her on a job they’d both been told to go on, together.

The man was called Matt, but he preferred being called by his surname, which was Sohinki. He’d been through much the same as Mari, committing small crimes for dealers and dealing himself on the side, until he’d met Mari on that fateful night. Apparently they’d been inseparable since, but without proper arms they weren’t safe.

That had been when Ryan, their mutual friend, had tipped Mari off about the guys. He’d told her that they were serious when on jobs, but also liked a good laugh in their downtime. They had arms and money to spare, and an apartment for Mari to stay in which beat sleeping in her beaten up Honda with Sohinki in the front of it.

They were still standing outside of their cars when Anthony pulled Ian, David and Joven to the side to talk about the woman and her friend.

“What do you guys think? We could do with the extra hands…” Joven started, and Ian cut in.

“This could all be a setup, they could be with the cops for all we know,” he pointed out, and David shook his head.

“Nah, I’ve seen her mugshot on local news, she’s not a stooge, I think we’re safe.” David still had his hand on his pistol though, the placement of his hand belying his true feelings.

“I think we should give them a go, see if they can prove themselves to be trustworthy and the like,” Anthony murmured with a nod, and Ian caved in, shrugging.

“Alright, sure. But if they shoot one of us in the face, I’m not to blame.”

\---

As it turns out, neither Mari nor Sohinki were stooges sent by the police or rival gangs, but were instead just looking for more security in their ‘jobs’. Anthony got hold of fake IDs for the both of them, as well as giving them a couple of stolen cards to use. They moved into the apartment, albeit into the one spare bedroom together. Mari quipped that it still beat sharing a car with Sohinki, even if she did end up sleeping in the same bed as her friend most nights.

Their first big job was another one that Ian sat out in the warehouse. Joven sat out too, after getting injured during a raid on a bank, which left just enough room in the car for Mari and Sohinki. Unlike Mari, who was excited at the prospect of torturing information out of someone, Sohinki felt nauseous at the thought.

He could easily snap a man’s neck with his bare hands thanks to his extensive hand to hand training, but for some reason, torture crossed a line for him. Regardless, keen to impress the men who’d kindly taken him and Mari in, he’d made himself go on the job with them.

Mari had her hands on her new shotgun, painted carefully by Anthony in a bright blue hue, as soon as they were out of the car, and Sohinki clutched at his pistol tightly. Anthony lead the way up the stairs to the apartment they were to raid, and as soon as they were through the door he shouted to Sohinki to take down the guy across the room from them, who was brandishing a knife.

This was the kind of thing Sohinki could do. Disarming people and knocking them to the floor was easy for him, in spite of his somewhat diminutive size. He liked the element of surprise his slight figure and shorter than average height gave him, because despite that he was strong and skilled, and he suddenly relished the idea of showing of his skills to his new bosses. Perhaps torture wasn’t too far off what he’d been doing already, in actuality.

He knocked the knife from the man’s hand and easily flipped him onto the floor, bending his hand and fingers up his back and kneeling on him. Joven had given Mari his butterfly knife to Mari before they left, and with a simple gesture, David directed Mari to the man on the floor.

Mari relished in kneeling down on the floor, flattening her body to the ground so she was at eye level with the man. She made a few threats and ended up hacking one of the man’s fingers off when he refused to cooperate with her. Anthony and David looked on, occasionally smiling and nodding at each other.

Once they had the information they needed, they left the apartment and the bleeding man, scurrying downstairs to the car and bidding a hasty retreat. On the way back, Mari was the one to call their contact and give the information to them, and soon they were on their way to pick up payment. It was their biggest job yet, one with a payout of nearly twenty grand in cash, which they would now split six ways, equally.

\---

After word got around about Mari hacking someone’s finger off with no remorse, not even caring when her face got splattered with blood, they started to take on more jobs like that. Ian stayed in the warehouse every time, unable to physically stomach seeing or doing those things himself. Instead, as the crew started to come back with more injuries with more frequency, he spent his downtime in the warehouse reading up on medical terminology and methods. He taught himself how to safely extract bullets under local anaesthetic, how to stitch wounds properly and how to debride a wound safely.

The day after a particularly successful job, they all went on something of a spending spree. David bought more arms, Joven invested in a few swords, Anthony bought himself a motorbike, Ian bought another car, Mari got hold of a few throwing knives and Sohinki bought himself his first gun. They were lying around in the warehouse, counting their leftover money, when there was a pounding at the large door.

Suspicious of what could be behind it, they all clutched at various weapons while Mari went to answer the door. On the other side of the door was a tall man, decked in designer gear, holding a pistol up in front of his face. He took a shot, which thankfully missed Mari, and Mari took a shot back which hit him square in the leg.

Before they knew it the warehouse was overrun with people, a few of whom shouted about ‘fucking with the wrong people’. Joven had known it was inevitable that they’d get some heat on them from rival gangs immediately, and he took great pleasure in swinging his new katakana across someone’s back, slicing them open from their waist to their shoulder.

Ian got blood on his hands that day, out of necessity and self-defence, and maybe that was the point at which he became less hesitant about killing. There was always a danger he’d be killed himself, he figured. What was some blood shed, at the end of the day?

When the men and women from the rival gang stopped coming, the six of them stood in stunned silence, glad it was a Saturday and none of the nearby units were occupied at that time. It was the first time they’d had to really take care of ‘cleaning up’ bodies and entrails, and David took the lead, getting hold of acid and cheap bathtubs to dissolve the bodies in. It wasn’t like they’d be missed - they must have taken out seven people, all of whom had to be carefully disposed of. Some were dissolved, others were taken under cover of darkness to an out of town river where they threw them in with ballast to weigh them down. As for the car, Ian commandeered it and got it modified and cleaned.

\---

Their move from their small warehouse was logical, really. If people had found out where they were, there was always the risk of that kind of thing happening again. They sold their unit back to the owner, who gave them a knowing wink and told them about a larger unit, a few more miles out of the town.

It was around this time when the four original members talked about inducting Mari and Sohinki into their relationship as well as their gang. They were growing to be close friends, and while declining wouldn’t jeopardise their position in the gang, all four of them thought it would be nice to try and have their gang be a relationship unit as well.

Mari eagerly said yes when Joven broached the subject with her, exclaiming that she’d wondered when they’d ask her, or if they ever would. She climbed across his lap and kissed Joshua deeply, threading her fingers through his short hair while he groped at her backside.

Sohinki was another matter, though. He wasn’t as eager, but tentatively he’d said yes when Joven asked him. He said he needed a few weeks to properly think about it, but perhaps Joven’s gentle little kiss to his cheek helped to sway his opinion.

\---

With a bigger warehouse came the need to fill it. They carried on doing jobs and, for the most part, things went as expected, though by then they had hit most local banks and were running out of targets. Word got passed around about their killing of rival gang members eventually, no matter how quiet they tried to keep it, and soon enough they were being offered six figure contracts to ‘bump off’ people.

Of course, they took them. Or at least, select members of the crew did. It was on one of these jobs that Anthony and Joven met a rival, known only as The Editor. He was tall, wealthy and had been taking contracts since he was eighteen. He was infamous as being one of the most prolific killers in the gangland underworld, and everyone had heard of him.

Surprisingly enough, he seemed to be a nice enough guy. Though Anthony had approached him with gun drawn, after seeing that their target had already been killed, The Editor had laughed and lowered his own gun, holding out a hand to shake Anthony’s.

“I’m Wes, The Editor,” he introduced himself confidently. “I’ve heard a lot about your crew, it’s enough to make someone want to work for you.” Wes laughed, and Anthony nervously shook his hand.

\---

A few weeks later, Wes and Anthony met once more, this time on another job. Wes cursed whoever had sent him on the same job as someone else once again, but once he was done running his mouth he courteously held his hand out to Anthony and shook his hand.

“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this,” Wes joked, and Anthony cracked a smile. Their target this time wasn’t a person, but rather a shipment of cocaine that needed to be destroyed. Ian, for one, was thankful for that as it meant he could get out of the warehouse and finally drive somewhere.

They stood facing each other, Wes on one side of the shipping container, and Anthony, Ian, Mari and Sohinki on the other. The docks around them were silent, thankfully.

“We have.” Anthony finally said. “Why don’t we just work together and get this shit dealt with, take half the cut each?” he diplomatically suggested, and Wes cocked his head to the side as he thought about the proposition. Anthony was expecting a shootout, but what he got instead was another handshake and a nod from Wes.

“Sounds like a good plan.”

\---

Halfway through their job, after the bolt had been cut off the container by Ian and some of the cocaine had been emptied into the dock, Wes perked his head up and looked at Anthony.

“There’s some… Interesting rumours about you and your crew,” he started. “Some people say you’re up and coming, and some people say you’re no more than a jumped up gang of polyamorists. What’s the truth?”

“Both,” Ian answered with a light laugh, clasping the hand that wasn’t holding his gun at his side around Sohinki’s. “Why, either of those a problem?”

“Oh, no. I just think your relationship is very interesting, is all. Wondered if you had room for another in your ranks.” Wes grinned as he slit open another bag of cocaine, tipping it over the side of the dock.

“For who? Just you, or would you want your entourage too?” Anthony asked. He was sceptical about the idea of accepting another, but Wes was well known for his accuracy, ruthlessness, wealth and contacts. He wouldn’t exactly be a bad addition to their gang, that was for sure, so long as he didn’t turn out to be a stooge.

Wes laughed at the idea of him having an entourage, and he shrugged. “Me and my partner. Business and otherwise.”

“Tell you what. If you do some jobs with us, and prove that you’re trustworthy, we’ll consider it.” Anthony stood up from where he’d been crouching at the dockside, stretching his legs.

\---

It took a couple of months for them to take Wes, and his partner Flitz, into their ranks. David hadn’t been happy with the idea so soon after accepting Mari and Sohinki into the fold, but he soon got over it when he realised that Wes wasn’t actually the sadistic asshole rumours painted him to be.

Along with going on jobs with the gang, Wes and Flitz were invited on date nights with the gang too. They went to the movies together, hung out at the warehouse and did more sordid things as well, all to make sure they were a perfect match. As it turned out, they fit right into the group seamlessly, as though they’d been there since the days when it was just Ian, Anthony and Joven driving through the Mojave together.

The next year or so passed normally enough for the gang. They kept doing jobs for various people, having moved on long ago from robbing convenience stores and postal offices, and the only thing that changed was a move from their too-small apartment into a large, sprawling house outside of the city, with security measures abound and a swimming pool to boot.

It was a baking hot summer’s day when their friend and one-time dealer, Ryan, turned up at their gates with three young looking people piled into the back of his car. One of them was clutching his arm and grimacing with pain, while the other two looked somewhat bewildered and confused. Anthony was the one to buzz them in and unlock the gates remotely, but Ian was the one who walked out to the car.

“What trouble are you in now, Ryan?” Ian joked, but as soon as he saw the pallid face of one of the boys in the car, he sprang into action and put his metaphorical medic’s hat on. Helping the boy and his companions out of the car, Ian ushered them up the driveway and into the house, seating them carefully in the kitchen so the bleeding boy didn’t get any blood on the carpets in the living room.

“What happened?” Ian asked once he had his little box of medical supplies in front of him, and Ryan went on to explain for the three younger people that they’d been caught up in a raid that they were unprepared for, and that Ian was the best man for the job of patching people up.

Ian kept them all talking a while longer, while Anthony made them tea and coffee. They were a picture of domesticity; or they would have been had Ian not been suturing an open wound in their kitchen, at least.

They learned that the injured man was called Keith, and that his companions were called Noah and Olivia. Olivia seemed to have composed herself somewhat since she’d got out of the car, perching delicately on one of the stools at the kitchen island and sipping daintily at her tea. Noah meanwhile was still looking bewildered, his eyes wide.

They also learned that Ryan had been planning on introducing them anyway, just under different circumstances than those that had ended up happening. Ian rolled his eyes at that, but Anthony expressed interest in what the three of them had been doing, and he learned quickly that their story was very similar to his and Ian’s. Three high school dropouts, trying to make their way through the criminal underworld to a place where they were ‘successful’, only their luck didn’t seem to be as good as Anthony and Ian’s was.

Ian supposed that was why Ryan wanted to introduce them, but before he had chance to finish his train of thought on that, Ryan was gently suggesting that perhaps Keith, Olivia and Noah would make good additions to their gang.

Ian opened his mouth to say ‘No, absolutely not,’ but Anthony beat him to the punch, saying instead that they’d love to give them a try out on a few jobs and see if they were worth taking on. Ian just rolled his eyes again and finished stitching Keith’s arm sullenly.

\---

A few months passed before they officially inducted the newbies into their gang. Like they had with Wes and Flitz, they not only took them on jobs but also on dates and let them hang out when they played Mario Kart together. Ian and Anthony had been hesitant about including the three in their relationship on account of their lower ages, but they were all legal and more importantly, wise and mature beyond their years.

Olivia was a skilled kickboxer with a penchant for smooth talking her way into and out of situations, (she had Mari wrapped around her little finger by all accounts, thanks to her sweet talking,) Keith was knowledgable about most things, but he had a particular liking for explosives, and Noah was practically a genius when it came to planning and executing plots.

As lovers, they were all a little apprehensive at first, finding the idea of a polyamorous relationship either confusing or scary, but after Mari took them all aside and explained that they weren’t expected to do anything with anyone that they didn’t want to, that most of the time their relationship consisted of little more than kisses, cuddles and beating each other at video games, and that they’d all take it easy with them to start with, their trepidation melted away.


End file.
